1. Welcome! www.SunsetChurchofChrist.net
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Sunday Bible Classes 9:30 AM Worship 10:30 AM 5:30 PM Wednesday Bible Classes 7:00 PM

2. Ephesians 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord
Hymns
Invitation
Red Songbook -
Supplemental

3. Learning to Love Ourselves

4. The Need to Love Yourself
If you do not love yourself: You cannot love your neighbor – James 2:8 You cannot love your spouse – Ephesian 5:28 You cannot seek wisdom – Proverbs 19:8 Successful Christians must love themselves
Jas 2:8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well
Eph 5:28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;
Pr 19:8 He who gets wisdom loves his own soul;
Pr 19:8 ¶ He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; He who keeps understanding will find good.

5. The Need to Love Yourself
Why we don’t “love” ourselves: We set standards we cannot meet Worldly pursuits Physical characteristics that change Impossible spiritual standards

6. The Need to Love Yourself
Why we don’t “love” ourselves: We set standards we cannot meet We pursue empty means to satisfy Chasing “happiness” Pursuing vanity

7. The Need to Love Yourself
Our dilemma: We do not understand what “love” means We do not know how to “love”

8. What is Love?
Love is NOT: An emotion An intense liking An acceptance

9. What is Love?
Therefore, loving ourselves is not: “Feeling” good about ourselves Liking everything about ourselves Accepting ourselves

10. What is Love? In the Bible love is: Sacrifice
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16
 Agapeos – seeking the best for another

11. What is Love? In the Bible love is: Sacrifice Obedience
"If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.” John 15:10

12. What is Love? Action In the Bible love is: Sacrifice Obedience
But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:17-18

13. What is Love? Action In the Bible love is: Sacrifice Obedience
Treating others well, it turns out, is the fastest path to a healthy self-esteem. If you dislike yourself, stop focusing on your negative qualities. We all have negative qualities. There's nothing special about your negativity, I promise you. Focus instead on caring for others. Because the more you care about others, I guarantee the more in turn you'll be able to care about yourself – Dr Alex Lickerman, Psychology Today
In the Bible love is:
Sacrifice
Obedience
Action
 Albert Schweitzer, Clara Barton, etc – even worldly lives dedicated to others find greater purpose

14. What is Love?
We love ourselves NOT by pursuing our happiness, but by seeking the best in God and in others This makes us the best we can be of ourselves Loving yourself = being the best you can be

15. Learning to Love Yourself
Step 1: By learning to serve others he who loves his wife loves himself. Ephesians 5:28b By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 1 John 5:2

16. Learning to Love Yourself
Step 2: By learning to forgive "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matthew 6:14-15

17. Learning to Love Yourself
Step 3: By learning to change
Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth Ephesians 4:23-24
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect Romans 12:2
 You may think that the grass is greener on the other side. But if you take the time to water your own grass it would be just as green

18. Learning to Love Yourself
Step 4: By learning to move forward
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; Philippians 3:13-15a
 Not dwelling on our past problems nor failures nor even successes

19. Loving Yourself
You must love yourself to effectively serve God Loving yourself is NOT a feeling or self gratification To love yourself you must lose yourself in God Whether you love yourself is your choice alone

21. What is the best you can achieve?
Mark 8:36
"For what does it profit a man to gain
the whole world, and forfeit his soul?”

22. How you can preserve your soul:
To Hear and Believe in Him…………… Mark 16:16
Confess Jesus as Lord…………….…..John 20:28
Repent of our sins…………………..….Luke 24:47
Be baptized in water………………..Matthew 28:19
Remain faithful until His return……Matthew 24:13